


She Fought the Law

by Kamikaze2007



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 23:09:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3587526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamikaze2007/pseuds/Kamikaze2007
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terezi gets assigned to what seems like the easiest and most straight-forward murder case of her career, but anyone versed in this type of thing should know that nothing is what it seems, especially when the defendant is eating prison food for two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Fought the Law

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elephant_bubbles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elephant_bubbles/gifts).



> Hey there! This is a gift fic for a close friend of mine, and as such, I made sure to include as many things I know she likes as possible. This did, however, mean writing for a field of work that I know absolutely nothing about, so I do hope you can let any inaccuracies slide. Happy birthday friend and I sure hope you like your fic!

Terezi sure did love her job. She kind of had to, considering all those classes she had to take to get it in the first place. The mountains of student loan debt were worth it though, because nothing brought Terezi more joy than bringing justice to evildoers and delivering to them fair retribution for their crimes. Her sunny disposition unnerved some of her coworkers somewhat; some of whom even went so far as to say it was childish and bizarre, but hey, when murder was the most common water cooler conversation topic, it helped to find _something_ to smile about. Her defiance of her coworker's criticisms bordered on straight up antagonistic, as she would accept jobs with a smile, a salute, and a promise that justice would be served as soon as humanly possible.

Her usual response was no different when she received the assignment that would change her life. The man giving her the slightly out of the usual assignment shrugged and left her to it with a passing remark of, “it's a woman who killed her own husband, so fuckin' have fun dealing with that.”

“Inappropriate workplace language!” Terezi called after him. She giggled and opened the vanilla folder and stared at the case intently. “...I can't read this shit,” she said, remembering that she wasn't wearing her glasses. She was in the process of going blind and the only defense against her eyes and their deterioration was increasingly thick glasses having to be replaced with stronger ones nearly bi-monthly. She snatched the glasses and perched them on her face before reading the account of the crime. She was to serve as defense for a woman who was accused of murdering her husband.

“Couple: around our age,” she recapped as she read it aloud later that night. Her boyfriend rolled his eyes. This was a regular occurrence, but that didn't mean he couldn't be grumpy about it. “The vic, a scrawny latino man with a shaved head was found by his wife, who is being accused of the murder. He was stabbed exactly eight times after getting his throat slit, all with the knife that the defendant woke up holding in her hand.”

“Can you stop referring to the murder victim with the term vic?” Her boyfriend's interjections were usually this frequent. “It makes you sound like you're in a bad procedural crime show.

“Oh come on Karkat, you gotta play along!” Terezi smiled and continued reading. “Now the girl swears up and down she didn't do it. I'm thinking she's gonna try to plead insanity. More like guilty!” Her last sentence was in a singsong voice as she closed the folder on her bedside table.

“You're insane,” Karkat said flatly. “Literally insane. A woman just killed her husband and you're acting like your dog did something adorable.”

“We don't have a dog,” Terezi said.

“I know we don't have a fucking dog, that's my one rule. But that's beside my point.”

Terezi shrugged. “I mean, it sucks that the dude got killed by his wife, but I'm excited because she's not gonna get away with it. I'm gonna see to it that she faces up to her crimes.”

“Whatever, it's still weird. Go to fucking sleep.”

* * *

 

The next day was scheduled to be Terezi's first day to speak to the defendant. She was sat in a dark room, lit by one shitty light above a small table. On the other side of that table sat the girl accused of murder. She was pale, mostly from having just killed her husband and spent a few days in dimly lit rooms, but that was unimportant. Her blue eyes were wide and she nervously brushed her long hair away from her face. It was blonde, but the color was obviously draining to its original brunette state. After a quick introduction and a weak handshake, Terezi sat across form the girl and got down to business. “Okay, straight to work. Vriska, I looked over your case and the only advice I can give is to either plead guilty or see if the court will let you slide with an insanity plea.”

“No!” Vriska slammed her hand on the table. “I knew that would be the first thing out of your stupid mouth, and I'm not doing it. I'm going to say I'm innocent because I didn't kill him!”

Terezi raised an eyebrow, obviously not pleased with Vriska's display. She sighed and shook her head. “Look, I'm not here to help you convince anyone you didn't do it, because I looked over the file, and all the evidence points to you. You were holding the knife, you were in the same room as him when you woke up, there were no signs of a break-in, you obviously murdered your husband.”

Vriska's eyes welled up with tears and she shook her head violently. “I didn't kill Tavros!” Terezi looked down at her file and started scanning it over, ignoring Vriska's plea of innocence. The perp placed her hands on Terezi's and gripped them tight. When she had eye contact again, Vriska gulped. “Please. You have to believe me. I don't remember a thing from that night. You would think I would remember killing someone.”

Terezi gazed back into Vriska's eyes and, strangely, couldn't find any signs of deceit in either her voice or her face. “Either you're really good at lying, or...” Terezi paused, incredulous to what she was about to say. “Or you're _not_ lying.”

“I'm not lying,” Vriska said, almost daring to hope she was finally getting somewhere. “He's...he was the father of my baby. I would never dream of killing him. Sure we had our fights, but what couple doesn't?”

“Wait, you have a child with the vic?” Terezi flipped through the file again, shooing Vriska's hands away. “The file never mentions any children.”

“Well, not yet...” Vriska looked down. “I'm pregnant.”

Terezi gasped. “You're expecting? How do they handle that in jail, I wonder?”

“I don't know!” Vriska's words were laced with desperation and worry. “I thought about getting rid of it before they book me, but I'm too far into the pregnancy to legally do that.”

Terezi bit her lip. Something just wasn't adding up. Vriska's genuine distress and situation was either very convincing or true, which would mean she was being framed. However, the evidence all pointed to her. How could Terezi possibly argue against that, and who was the real murderer if not Vriska?

The trial passed, and nothing was found to provide Vriska with any defense, so she was sentenced and thrown in prison. However, the almighty, justice-serving Terezi lost too much sleep over it to let it go. Vriska was now a convicted murderer and got sent off to rot in prison for god-knows how long. Shouldn't that be her problem? Shouldn't the baby be her problem and not Terezi's? Despite having successfully delivered justice, Terezi felt immensely guilty, which had never happened before. After she spent the longest two days of her life mulling this over, she finally figured out what she had to do.

Terezi was going to investigate the crime scene for herself.

* * *

 

The first thing Terezi was greeted with upon stepping out of her car in front of the victim's house was one of her good friends, an officer who had taken to this case rather quickly. “Hey there Officer Applescab,” she greeted.

“My name's not Applescab,” her friend said with an eyeroll.

“Oh, excuse me, let me correct myself. Hey there Offither Applethcab.”

The officer shook his head. “Make fun of my lisp one more time and I swear to god.”

“Sorry Sollux,” Terezi said, struggling not to fake lisp at him again. “So what puts you on this case?”

Sollux shrugged as he walked Terezi into the house. “I went to high school with Tavros. I didn't hang with him or anything, but I at least knew who he was. It's so weird knowing that someone I went to school with is dead, you know?”

Terezi nodded. “Yeah, but maybe this is a good thing. You may just be helpful in solving this case.” Upon entering the home, she made a beeline for Tavros' room, eager to investigate immediately. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see, as the body had been long removed and the blood stains were all that were left.

“Wait, what do you mean by that? We already know his wife did it, don't we?”

Terezi shook her head. “Something tells me we may be assuming too much here.”

“Too much? She was holding he knife when she called the cops! What other evidence do we need?”

“I don't know, maybe a motive of some sort?” Terezi suggested. “Nobody just does this to their baby-daddy without having a damn good reason to.”

“Good point, I guess, but there's not a whole lot to go off of,” Sollux said. “She said that the night before, they'd had a bit of a fight, but it was nothing to stab the guy over.”

“What was the fight about?” Terezi asked.

“Why does it matter?”

“Don't be an obstruction of justice, Sollux!”

Sollux cringed at Terezi's sudden volume before explaining himself. “The night before, they were arguing about the fact that the drain was plugged. That's all I know.”

Terezi put a finger to her chin and nodded. “That could be essential in solving this!” She ran to the kitchen and threw open the cabinet under the sink. “Are there any plumbing tools in here?”

Sollux shrugged. “I dunno. He was latino so he probably kept some tools around for manual labor.”

Terezi pointed an accusatory finger at Sollux. “Racism. Bad trait for a cop to show. Get me something to open this drain with before I fire your ass.”

Sollux quickly fetched a wrench from Tavros' garage and, after a quick trip to the dollar store, pipe cleaners, all of which were placed on the counter before Terezi started scouring the house for a cup. “If there's anything useful to this case in that sink—”

“Which there won't be.”

“—then it needs to be got in a cup, otherwise I just end up spilling it all over my face.” Terezi found what she was looking for and assumed her position under the sink. She pried it open and commanded Sollux to run the pipe cleaner through the sink from the top. When nothing was forced out, she pried the rest of the pipe from the wall and used another pipe cleaner on the now independent section of pipe. Finally, she managed to get some chunks of food and a strange substance out of it. She handed the cup full of gunk to Sollux. “Get that back to the lab to get analyzed. I'm gonna see if they have any close friends who might know something.”

“You've got it, uh, Detective...Banana Pudding.”

Terezi laughed and shook her head. “You need practice. It's profession, fruit, body part.”

“But you call me Applescab.”

“Scabs are a special case,” Terezi said with a grin. “Now go get that analyzed by Doctor Honeytongue right away!”

“Honey's not a fru—”

“Now!”

* * *

 

After some digging, Terezi found out about Tavros' best friend, who seemed like he would be worth talking to. Terezi sneered at his run down house before knocking on the door, which seemed like it was going to fall from the force of it. The door opened after a moment to reveal a very tall, very pale guy with the greasiest hair Terezi had ever seen. In fact, his entire gangly appearance made her feel like she needed a shower right away. “Um, is this the Makara residence?”

The man stared into space a few seconds before finally responding. “Uh, right. Yeah, this is the Gamzee resi-place. What can I do for a motherfucker on this fine day?”

“I would like to ask you some questions about the death of one Tavros Nitram.”

“Whoa, wait, there's more than one of him?” Gamzee asked the question with so much sincerity that Terezi was frozen in place, unsure of what to even say. Finally, the meaning of her words penetrated his gross head and he nodded. “Oh, right, I forgot you people use funky wordings and shit. Anyway, yeah, I can do that for you, dude. Come on in and we'll all up and have ourselves a motherfucking chat.”

Terezi really didn't want to enter the house, but she did and the inside was just as much of a mess as she expected. The overwhelming smell of pot made her wish she had not accepted the man's offer. He sat down one a big, broken arm chair and reclined as she took a spot on a dirty couch, as far away from the mysterious white stain as she could possibly make herself. “Would you like a motherfucking drink or something?”

Terezi said “no” as fast as she humanly could. “I'll be fine. I'm just going to ask you a few questions and then I'll be out of your hair.”

“A'ight, fire away motherfucker!” Gamzee reached into his pocket and pulled something out. “Hey, mind if I get my wicked smoke on?”

“Yes, I do mind,” Terezi said.

“That's cool, dog.” Gamzee's words said he was going to refrain from smoking in her presence, but the way he lit his blunt spoke otherwise. With a roll of her eyes, Terezi got started.

“Okay, so how did you know the deceased?”

“Who?”

Terezi sighed. “Tavros. How did you know Tavros?”

“Oh, right!” Gamzee snapped the fingers of his free hand as if he'd figured it out himself. “Homie died. Sad shit, yo. He was like, my best friend man.”

“He was? How did you meet him?” Terezi asked for a third time.

“We've went to school together since middle school. He was one sweet motherfucker.”

“I see,” Terezi said, trying to ignore this guy's disastrous speech patterns. “So tell me about Tavros.”

“Tavros was a cool motherfucker. He was kind of a pushover but he was super nice to every motherfucker and liked everyone.” The way Gamzee spoke, as if Tavros' death wasn't affecting him was sounding warning bells in Terezi's head, but she thought that maybe it was the drugs dulling his senses. “I visited him like, almost every day yo.”

Terezi nodded to show she was listening. “And what about his wife Vriska?”

Gamzee frowned at the mention of the accused. “His bitch is, well, a bitch, dude. She don't like me much, like she thought I was creepin' in on her man, man.”

“Alright, and did she have any motive to kill Tavros?”

“Well, no, I don't think so. She's fuckin' mean but she ain't no killer. She has been uber moody lately, so maybe that's it.”

Terezi cringed at the man's use of the word uber. “Uh, huh. And did Tavros have any enemies? Anyone that would want to kill him and maybe, I don't know, frame Vriska?”

Gamzee scratched his head, thankfully with the hand that wasn't holding a joint. Terezi did not want to have to deal with a hair fire set by pure stupidity. “I don't know, dude. Tavros was nice to everyone except motherfuckers who were mean to him first, which isn't a lot of motherfuckers. Everyone either fuckin' loves him or doesn't give a shit.”

“I see,” Terezi nodded once more. This was going nowhere fast. “When was the last time you saw the victim, er, Tavros?”

“The day before he died, man. I went to his house to say motherfuckin' hi and walked in and Vriska fuckin' yelled at me and then I left. She don't like it when I use my key to get inside.”

“Your key?”

“Yeah man.” Gamzee reached into his pocket once more and brandished a key. “Tavros gave me a key to his house. Motherfucker thinks I'm the bomb, yo. Trusts me with his house and everything.”

Terezi nodded and stood up. “Well, thank you for your time, Mister Makara.”

“Please, call me Gamzee.”

Terezi had a few words to call the stoner, but decided to smile and see her way out of his house as soon as possible. She usually had a keen sense of whether a person was lying or not, but she could not get a clean reading on this Gamzee guy. Perhaps it was because he was very obviously under the influence of questionably legal substances, or maybe he was actually a criminal mastermind.

Terezi dismissed the second thought with a laugh and started her car. She hastily drove away from the Makara residence and headed for her office. On the way, she received two phone calls, neither of which she answered, because she was a law-abiding citizen and speaking on the phone while driving was very illegal and dangerous. When she settled in her office with her feet up on the desk, though, she was more than happy to check to see who had called. Both of her phone's missed calls for the day were from Sollux, which meant he had gotten something back from the lab. “What's the status, Applescab? What info did you manage to extract from Doctor Honeytongue?”

She could hear Sollux sigh on the other end. “You know what? I'm just going to ignore it from now on. Anyway, the slush you got had some weird shit in it.”

“What kind of weird shit?” Terezi asked.

“First of all, some of the shit they found was Tavros' blood,” Sollux started.

“I see,” Terezi said nodding her head. “That's interesting.”

“How?” Sollux asked. “She woke up totally clean of his blood. It just means she washed her hands after stabbing him is all.”

“Not necessarily,” Terezi said. “The scenario the courts came up with is that Vriska blacked-out, stabbed him eight times, and fainted when she realized what she'd done. If that had happened, why would she have the common sense to wash her hands? Furthermore, if she had the sense to wash her hands, why not abscond the fuck out of there while she was out of the room? No need to go back and see the horrors of what she'd done, much less get back under the covers, which is where she said she was when she woke up to a dead body.”

“That makes sense, but pregnant chicks do some weird shit,” Sollux said. Before Terezi could snap at him, he clarified. “Hey, I'm just playing devil's advocate here, don't bitch at me.”

“Yeah, alright,” Terezi said, rubbing her temples. “Anything else? Tavros' blood alone isn't 'weird shit.'”

“Well, you see....”

Terezi's eyes widened as she heard the news that would turn this case around for the better.

* * *

 

Re-opening the case was a weeks-long process, but finally, Terezi found herself back on the courtroom floor with a very obviously almost-due Vriska and a bored but attentive judge and jury. “Ladies, gentlemen, both and neither,” Terezi started, pacing back and forth and waving her cane around menacingly. She said the cane was to help her with her vision, but it was really just for dramatic effect. “I bring you here today because we, as servants of justice, have delivered a false-verdict. My client, one Vriska Serket-Nitram is _not_ guilty in the murder of her husband, and here's why. She held aloft a clicker. “If I can turn your attention to the projector...” She had taken the time to set up a nice slideshow of evidence, since she had a lot of free-time before the case got opened once more.

“This better be good, Pyrope,” the judge warned. “You're risking your job on this woman.”

“Fear not, Senator Lemonsnout. I trust you'll find my arguments quite compelling.”

“What did you just call me?” The judge raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Point one!” Terezi clicked the button on her clicked and the slideshow opened on a picture of the kitchen. “This is the kitchen that our defendant shared with our poor, poor victim. This is the room that the police did not investigate, but it holds all the most important clues. I will begin by saying that this murder was allegedly prompted by a clogged sink. This lead me to investigate the sink, since the sink is always a grade-A way to dispose of damning evidence.”

Vriska buried her face in her hands. She was completely clueless as to what Terezi was about to reveal and terrified of being sent back to prison after this woman provided her with a glimmer of hope. “I just wanted the sink fixed...Sure, I yelled, but I didn't intend to...” She couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.

Terezi saw this and hardened her determination to prove Vriska's innocence. “Now, in my investigation, I found that the sink was indeed clogged, and what was in it went a long way in solving this case. First off, trace amounts of Nitram blood was found in the blocked drain. Why is this important, you may ask?”

“Easy enough,” one of the jury chimed in. “She killed him and washed her hands in the sink after the fact.”

Terezi held up a finger. “Tut tut. Now, the theory was that Vriska blacked-out, killed him, and then fainted in the bed once she realized what she had done. Now, what kind of pregnant lady, in a fit of murderous rage, has the sense to wash her hands after the deed? Further more, why didn't her common sense extend further? If she was in the kitchen, she could have easily washed the knife and hid it away. Beside that, why stop there? Why not high-tail it out of there before she realized what she had done? Nobody with enough sense to wash her hands clean forgets those details.”

;The judge shrugged. “A good argument, but not quite the convincing evidence this court needed.”

“Well then hold on to your butts, because this next part is where things get interesting.” Terezi nodded knowingly. “The lab found more than just blood in that sink. What else did they find? A strand of hair and materials commonly found in date rape drugs.” She clicked her button to advance to the next slide, which was a picture of a glass of cloudy water with a red straw in it. Vriska gasped at this revelation, which Terezi hoped would help convince the rest of the people in the courtroom of her innocence. “Now this points to the murderer drugging up the victim and then disposing of the remaining drink in the clogged sink after the deed was done. If Vriska really did black-out and murder Tavros, how the hell did she mix a roofie in her crazed state? The answer is, she wouldn't have. I hereby propose that the true perpetrator of this crime drugged up Vriska, murdered Tavros, disposed of the evidence and placed the knife in Vriska's hands to frame her!”

The judge had his chin in his hand, looking Terezi and Vriska over carefully. “I see, but there were no signs of a break-in. Tell me, then, how did the murderer do this? When the defendant woke up the morning after the murder, every possible entrance and exit was locked. Your theory doesn't hold up because of that.”

“Oh, but it does, my dearest Lemonsnout,” Terezi said happily.

“Please stop calling me that.”

“I'd like to bring in the prime suspect.” Terezi motioned to the doors. “We nabbed this guy on possession of illegal substances, and I believe he is the one who murdered Mister Nitram. I'd like to introduce the court to Gamzee Makara.” On cue, two burly security guards walked through the doors, one gangly, shaggy-haired man between them. Vriska gasped at his name and nearly burst into tears at the sight of the stoner.

The judge raised an eyebrow as the new trio came to a stop directly in front of his stand. “And what exactly makes you think this is the murderer?”

Terezi held up three fingers. “Three things: Remember that one piece of evidence I glossed over? After extensive DNA tests, one of which involved finding Tavros blood in the hair, the docs in the lab deduced that the strand of hair belonged to one Gamzee Makara. Second: there were dishes stacked next to the sink, the closest of which was an empty glass. I dusted the glass for prints and it was the only dirty dish to not have either Vriska or Tavros' fingerprints on it. It had Gamzee's fingerprints instead.” Terezi turned and put down two of her fingers, which caused her to flip Gamzee the bird. “And finally, Gamzee wouldn't need to break in in the first place, because the victim and his wife gave him a key to their house!”

Gasps sounded in the courtroom, the loudest of which belonged to Vriska. Terezi smiled at this and turned to the judge, motioning for his response. The judge nodded sagely among the chatter that had started between the jurors. “I see. That is indeed overwhelming evidence. However, we would be wrong not to question the prime suspect. Mister Makara, how do you plead to this accusation?”

Gamzee, up to this point, had kept a blank, expressionless face despite the overwhelming evidence against him. He sighed deeply and looked directly at Vriska. He held her gaze for a minute before looking up at the judge. “Tavros was my best motherfucking friend,” he said in an offended tone. His features hardened and he turned his gaze back to Vriska.

He stared at her silently for a moment before Terezi decided to give her input. “Yeah, well he was Vriska's husband, so don't try to use a title to prove your innocence.”

Gamzee's gaze turned to Terezi. “Shut up.”

A juror rolled his eyes and stood from his seat. “We don't have time for this. Did you do it or not?”

When Gamzee responded, his voice was nothing like it was mere seconds ago. It was loud, echoed in the courtroom and sent shivers down Terezi's spine. “ _Shut the fuck up you motherfucking whelp!_ ” The juror slowly sat down, clearly terrified, and Gamzee coughed. He opened his mouth to speak, and what came out was so silent, Terezi wasn't sure if she was imagining it or not. “Fine. I did it.”

Chatter between the rest of the jurors exploded then, some not believing that he actually confessed to it, and some talking about how loud he just was. Vriska stood from her seat and let out a confused scream. An appropriate response to learning your husband was killed by his best friend, Terezi thought. “You? But why?”

“Because I was trying to frame you, _dumbass_ ,” Gamzee said. His speech was wavering and would go from silent to impossibly loud in the middle of a sentence and back to quiet before the sentence was over. “I fucking hate you, and I want you to _rot in prison!_ ”

Vriska marched over to Gamzee, confronting him directly. Terezi tried to stop her, but she should have known that there was almost no stopping an angry pregnant woman from doing what she needed to do. “I always knew you were scum, you know that?” She shrieked in Gamzee's face. “You'd kill your own best friend before he could meet his own child...” Vriska's voice caught in her throat, and though she tried her best not to, it was painfully clear she was about to have a complete emotional breakdown in front of a full jury.

Gamzee snarled at her, restrained only by the security guards at either side of him. “Go suck a _dick._ Oh wait, you can't because _Tavros is motherfucking dead!_ ”

Instead of wrestling with her tears and trying to formulate a hateful response, Vriska swallowed hard, reared back, and clocked Gamzee in the face. Everyone present gasped, and Gamzee nearly crumpled to the ground. The guards at his sides held him up, but not without some struggle. Vriska lunged at him, attempting to get at him again, screaming something about clawing his eyes out, but a third security guard who had been stationed next to the judge's podium ran for her and held her back before she could do too much more damage. Gamzee screamed curses right back at her, only making the scene worse and provoking Vriska more. By the time the guards had gotten Gamzee out of there, his face was covered in blood from the scratches Vriska managed to land and his eyes were bloodshot. Terezi assumed he had popped a vessel in his eyes from how loud he was yelling. Once he was out of sight, Vriska stopped struggling against the guard, but didn't stop screaming. When the guard asked her what was wrong, she nearly fell to the floor herself, clutching at her stomach. “The baby's coming!”

Terezi rushed to Vriska's side and helped the guard keep her upright. “Okay, let's get you to my car. I'm gonna get you to the hospital.” Vriska responded with a loud groan and Terezi quickly escorted the woman from the courtroom despite the protests coming from the judge. Terezi understood that it wasn't proper protocol for the defense and the defendant to leave before the case was closed, but she also acknowledged that these were extenuating circumstances. What she didn't understand was why she felt like taking Vriska to the hospital was her responsibility. Shouldn't she have dropped her off with a medic and left it to them? Something about this case had triggered serious mama-bear instincts in Terezi and she felt like it was her duty to protect Vriska at all cost.

Terezi mulled over this in the waiting room of the hospital. Why did she get so close to this woman? She had sworn she would never get too attached to a case, but when the possibility that Vriska may have been framed came up, it had suddenly become personal. It was inexplicable and strange, but Terezi was somehow okay with it. If it meant justice would be served, she was okay with whatever it was she had to end up doing. In fact, she was perfectly okay to spend the entire night at the hospital if it meant making sure Vriska made it through everything alright. Karkat wasn't happy with her, but that was okay.

A few hours into her wait, she received a call from someone she worked with. It held the best news Terezi had heard in months. Gamzee was found guilty (since he had kinda screamed it) and would spend the rest of his life rotting in prison while all charges against Vriska were to be dropped entirely. Nobody would ever know that she was once accused of killing her husband; especially not future employers, which was the most important part. Terezi nearly did a full-on dance in the waiting room, she was so ecstatic about the news. Something she shared with Vriska the moment she finally got to see her. Vriska's relieved, tired face made Terezi proud to be the one to deliver the news.

The next thing either of them said was about what brought them to the hospital in the first place. “Miss Pyrope, this is going to be really weird, but would you like to hold him?”

Terezi gasped. “I would be honored. And please, call me Terezi.” She gingerly took the newborn from Vriska's arms and stared down at the child's big, brown eyes as he inspected the intruder into his young life. “He's beautiful. What're you gonna name him?”

Vriska scoffed. “Is there any other option? Of course I'm naming him after his father.” She had to sniffle before continuing her sentence. “It's only fair that he at least know his dad's name, because that's all he's ever going to know...”

Terezi nodded solemnly, understanding Vriska's reasoning completely. “Tavros would be proud.”

Vriska's tear-filled eyes were all the evidence Terezi needed to know that she said the right thing.

* * *

 

Months later, Terezi was sat down at lunch with her boyfriend. Karkat was going off about some romcom they had seen the night before, analyzing the characters tirelessly and metaphorically tearing the story apart to inspect every single element of it. Terezi nodded absentmindedly as she scanned the daily paper for anything of interest—maybe enough to change the subject completely!

When she found nothing, she folded the paper up and lay it down on the table in front of her. She looked to the stairs and said, “are they gonna sleep all fucking day?”

Karkat was not pleased with being interrupted. “Oh, I don't fucking know. Why does it matter?”

“Oh, it doesn't, she's just usually awake by now.” Terezi shrugged and stood up, making a move to throw the newspaper away.

Karkat held up a hand to stop her. “Wait, don't do that. Sunday strips.”

“Right!” Terezi dug through the paper and took out the Sunday Comics. “Thanks for reminding me, Karkat. It's nice to see even Mister Grumpy cares about things.”

“I'm just saving you from getting your ear chewed off,” Karkat shrugged.

“Yeah, sure you are.” The third voice sounded from the stairs, and Terezi excitedly turned to see Vriska, freshly blonde and holding a small Tavros Nitram Junior in her arms. She sat at the relatively new third seat at the table and grabbed the comics. “You guys know how much Tavros likes seeing the pretty pictures on Sundays. And sometimes his mommy needs the laughs too.” As she said this, she lifted her shirt just enough to allow her child access to his breakfast.

“You just spent all morning up in your room, couldn't you have done that in there?” Karkat asked, averting his gaze from the other woman's chest.

“I just woke up five minutes ago,” Vriska snapped. “And no, I like sitting up straight when I'm feeding him. Do you know how hard it is to breastfeed in a bed?”

After the whole ordeal of getting Vriska out of jail, she had asked Terezi what to do next. She couldn't stomach the thought of ever being in the house her husband was murdered in again and she didn't have the money for her own place, so Terezi decided she was going to let her move in with her and Karkat. It had taken some convincing, but Karkat finally allowed Vriska's presence in the house, and the two living together had suddenly become four. Terezi loved having Vriska as a friend and both her and her boyfriend absolutely adored the baby boy, so the whole arrangement worked out.

Especially when Vriska got a job and could start paying rent. That part was Karkat's favorite.

 


End file.
